Here are short takes on the three new books.
1.
Glimmers
You can admire those for whom happiness comes easy—those with private jets, expensive pets and wind-proof hair. But, in your trouble, you can only lean on those for whom it was hard work. Those like writer and poet Cailin Hargreaves, who was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease at the age of 10. She learnt to thrive, perhaps not despite the chronic pain, but because of it. That is why, when she leads you through the grammar of happiness, you know it is a language that she speaks fluently. Through her poetry and her journaling prompts in Glimmers, she helps you find a joy that is precious because it has been hard-won. “Life is full of hardships and dark moments that can leave scars,” she writes in the book. “Yet, in those moments, we often find ‘glimmers’—small yet shining moments of hope and happiness that lift us up....” Whether in a child’s laughter or in a riotous sunset, these glimmers can thaw your gloom in a way little else can.
Glimmers
By Cailin Hargreaves
Published by Penguin Random House
Price 499; pages 197
2.
Chicanery
What would prompt an exiled prime minister to return to his homeland knowing he is going to be executed? When asked, he has one answer: Love. But in a country fuelled by power, hatred, suspicion and despotism, love is like a tin of biscuits which is past its expiry date—you can almost imagine how it tasted once, but you know that it is too late to consume it now. Chicanery is a tale of contrasts—of freedom versus slavery, of loyalty versus betrayal, and of hope versus bleakness. And contrasts showcase in a way nothing else can. Light cannot be appreciated without darkness and life cannot be appreciated without death. Set in a fictional country, if Chicanery is outwardly a parable of our times, it is inwardly a search of our hearts. Even in a world that tries to quench it, the book inspires introspection with meaningful social commentary. Our reflection, after all, is as important as our reality.
Chicanery
By Timeri N. Murari
Published by Niyogi Books
Price Rs695; pages 423
3.
Our Stories, Our Struggles: Violence and the Lives of Women
Her travels around the world for 30 years inspired Mitali Chakravarty—one of the editors of Our Stories, Our Struggles—to ask a question for which there is no easy answer: “Why don’t women in South Asia enjoy the same freedom that women in many other parts of the world do? That was the starting point for this book—a collection of narratives and poetry by South Asian women that addresses themes of rape, domestic violence, acid attacks and suicide. From the lives of the Chakma women in Bangladesh to the state violence faced by those in conflict zones like Manipur, the book is a wide-angle pan on women’s predicament in these countries. “I no longer care if anyone thinks I’m making things up,” states a sexual abuse survivor. “I have pulled up the carpet, and my truth is out there.” At a time when the Malayalam film industry has been shaken by the Hema Committee report and protests over the gang-rape of the RG Kar trainee doctor refuse to be subdued, the truth is leaking as from a damp glass ceiling. It just might be Advantage Women.
Our Stories, Our Struggles: Violence and the Lives of Women
Edited by Mitali Chakravarty and Ratnottama Sengupta
Published by Speaking Tiger Books
Price Rs599; pages 329
